BENGALURU: Forest, Environment and Ecology Minister Eshwar B Khandre on Thursday said the government has been able to achieve some key objectives to inculcate best practices for environment conservation, protection and combating climate change. But some are yet to be achieved.
“The government is working on the issue of environment degradation in urban areas, but we haven’t had a breakthrough yet. Although we have been looking at various options, most of them are not helping enough. One among them is the green building concept we are looking at seriously. We are trying to understand and evaluate how well it can be integrated into our system and can help reverse the trend and achieve sustainable development,” Khandre said.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the three-day Green Building Congress 2024, an international conference being held in the city, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) - Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). Khandre said Karnataka should work on three major concepts to achieve success -- change in policy and rules, training for stakeholders and implementation and monitoring of concepts to make an impact on the ground.
Of the 12.8 billion sqft of green building footprint in India, Karnataka’s contribution is 1 billion sqft and it is one of the top three contributing states, having 1,100 green building projects.
Bengaluru has over 70 per cent of Karnataka’s green building space, followed by Mangaluru. While it is low, a lot more needs to be done, like setting high targets and goals, as the construction industry is growing rapidly, said B Thiagarajan, national chairman, IGBC. He said that like other states, Karnataka should give 5-10 per cent incentive to buildings certified by IGBC, besides a subsidy in registration and floor area ratio. It should consider raising the cap for installation of solar rooftop panels for better sustainability.
City students win awards
Two Bengaluru students, Varna Vichithran and Priyatham Uppalapati, of BMS College of Architecture, won the IGBC Green Design Competition 2024, on the theme ‘Identifying Urban Voids’. Priyatham had won the award for finding a solution on how to use abandoned water tanks by redesigning them and using them in street vending areas and community co-working and skill development centres.
Varna won for the plan she created on remodelling of conservancy lanes in Malleswaram, demonstrating how they are used as children’s play areas, pet parks, walking or jogging parks, reading nooks and even plant nurseries.